


Purple flowers (Verbena and Violets)

by Zoe324



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Kunoichi Club, Teamwork makes the dream work, girls supporting girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 20:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20513318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe324/pseuds/Zoe324
Summary: A conversation about teams and flowers.





	Purple flowers (Verbena and Violets)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [runeofluna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/runeofluna/gifts).

The bell on the door chimed lightly, interrupting the quiet rustling of leaves and the snip of Ino’s scissors. 

“Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers.” Ino chirped, looking up from the arrangement she had been working on. Her smile gained a delighted gleam when she saw who was at the door.

“Hanabi! Chiyako! Glad to see you both,” she greeted both academy students with a grin, “What brings you by today?” 

Both girls hesitantly stood right inside the shop before Hanabi gathered herself and marched forward to the counter.

“We’re covering teamwork in class,” Hanabi stated, “and we have some questions after Iruka-sensei’s lecture yesterday.”

“And we were wondering if we could ask you?” Chiyako added on, drifting in on the wake of Hanabi’s bold entry.

“And you thought you’d just stop in and ask little old me?” teased Ino, “Not that I’m not flattered that you’d come ask sempai!” 

Ino added an exaggerated smile and wink in Chiyako’s direction and watched as the younger girl’s nerves settled.

“So what’s your question?” Ino asked setting her scissors down and leaning forward with her elbows perched on the counter.

“Well…” Chiyako said, trailing off and turning to Hanabi, who tilted her head and waited expectantly. After a moment Chiyako breathed in a little deeper before turning back to Ino.

“We wanted to ask, since you’re Ino-Shika-Cho, what the most important qualities are to be a good teammate.” Chiyako’s voice grew more confident as she talked. “Some of our classmates were talking about how you have to have powerful jutsu or cool weapons or other things like that to be part of a team. But I don’t think that’s the right answer.”

“I agree with Chiyako-chan.” Hanabi added, “My sister and Chiyako’s brother are on the same team, and they’re strong which makes them good shinobi, but that isn’t what makes them a good _team_.”

“So we were wondering if you knew what makes a person a good teammate.” Chiyako finished, looking at Ino expectantly. 

“I think,” Ino said after a moment, reaching over and pulling the arrangement she’d been working on closer. “That some of the most important qualities to be a good teammate are represented by these flowers.”

“We covered flower meanings months ago,” Hanabi interjected, thrown by the sudden change in topic.

“Which means you will have no trouble identifying these then?” Ino said. “Or remembering what they mean?” 

“The ones on the left are violets, and the other ones are verbena right?” Chiyako said hesitantly.

“Right! And they mean?” Ino trailed off, prompting the two younger girls.

“Honesty for violets, and cooperation for verbena.” Hanabi answered after a brief pause, clearly wondering why Ino was bringing up hanakotoba, still unfamiliar enough with Ino to know that Ino needs no excuse to bring up hanakotoba.

“Honesty and cooperation. You need to be honest with yourself and with your team. Be aware of what your skills are _and_ what your limitations are. You also need to share with your team. Not just what you can contribute but also where you need help, which is a really hard thing to tell your teammates. But if you all share where you need help, then you can help each other!”

“So being a good teammate doesn’t mean being strong all the time?” Hanabi asked skeptically.

“You’ve got it, being a good teammate means being _honest_ about where you need help and then working _together_ to be stronger as a team than any of you on your own.”

**Author's Note:**

> Things I have learned from doing this exchange: Writing dialogue heavy scenes is hard, and people who can write engaging and quippy scenes have my respect.


End file.
